Felipe Massa’s love affair with the Istanbul Park circuit goes on. He took his third pole position in a row at the circuit where he scored his first in 2006. It leaves him perfectly poised to turn the trick again in the race tomorrow.

Joining him on the front row is McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen. He and Lewis Hamilton, third, held championship leader Kimi Raikkonen back for fourth.

With Super Aguri missing from the grid and only 20 cars participating, the first two stages of qualifying would see five cars eliminated instead of six, with ten progressing to Q3 as usual.

Part one

Giancarlo Fisichella led the charge at the start of the first part of qualifying, knowing that wherever he qualified he would lose three places on the grid following his penalty for going through a red light in qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton moved to the top of the times early on with a 1’26.192 and then stayed in the pits. It took the Ferraris several attempt to beat it, Felipe Massa eventually putting in a 1’25.994.

Also lapping quickly late in the session were the Toyotas with Jarno Trulli and Timp Glock rising to fourth and fifth in the dying moments.

The battle at the other end of the times sheets was even more fierce. Sebastian Vettel defied expectations to get into Q2, leaving his team mate Sebastien Bourdais and, not surprisingly, both Force India cars behind.

Kazuki Nakajima failed to beat Vettel by a tenth of a second but the bigger surprise was Nelson Piquet behind him in 17th, knocked out in the first session just as he was in Melbourne.

Part three

With BMW not showing the pace of previous races, and Renault not going as light on fuel as they did in Spain, the battle for the front two rows was entirely between Ferrari and McLaren.

A third straight pole position at the Istanbul circuit for Felipe Massa rarely seemed in any doubt. He was comfortably quicker than anyone else – especially Lewis Hamilton, who lost a second in sector two on his first attempt at a flying lap.

Hamilton elected not to run a lap on the softer option tyres, feeling they were running low on grip late in the lap. He did his final effort on scrubbed hard tyres and it was enough to lift him into third place – albeit behind his team mate Heikki Kovalainen, who did use the softer tyres.

Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, three tenths of a section behind his team mate and just 0.007 off Hamilton.

Looking ahead tomorrow:
I see Hamilton pouncing on the front row with prodigious gusto. He might not necessarily get Massa but Heiki’s 2nd might be 3rd before turn 2. Kimi’s dodgy starting means he might have to concentrate on fending off the ever hungry Kubica and will therefore not be attacking right off but will definitely have gathered enough speed to roar in the early corners. Kubica as usual will be pressing hard and keeping his sights on the front runners. If Alonso doesn’t get docked, he will be hunting down Mark Webber in the early corners. Any one?

Frecon, it’s not clear whether Alonso’s incident was with Massa or Kimi. Telecinco guys (in Spain) don’t seem to have been sure either. If it was Kimi, Fernando might pay but the stewards might go lighter on him if it was found to be Massa since it doesn’t seem to have hindered his P1. But then again, we really never know what the stewards might have up their sleave. They are like the ever perfectionist referee. Any sharp eyed viewers out there or any one who might have had sharp eyed commentators?

Yep from looking at this video it seems it was Massa and the FOM graphic said Raikkonen instead. As Massa clearly wasn’t delayed I don’t think Alonso’s in any danger. I’ve amened the qualifying report accordingly. Thanks for the help.

In the news they only talked about the Massa’s incident, and all the views was with the Massa’s car. I don’t know if it was two incidents, but i think is pretty unlikely.

Anyway it’s no clear for me that Alonso damaged the lap of Massa (eventually he did pole), and in case the FOM subtitle was correct, it doesn’t look like to me, he damaged Kimi’s lap. I don’t think FIA is going to investigate it if Ferrari don’t make an official complaint. And Ferrari has nothing to win moving Alonso backwards in the grid.

Frecon, rules are rules and as long as the stewards deem it necessary to investigate, they can. As Keith pointed out to you, it’s their job, so it doesn’t matter whether a team appeals or not. They certainly have their reasons for doing so, safety inclusive as well as sending a warning to the rest to prevent it happening again. The fact that Massa and Fernando “were talking very friendly” doesn’t stop Ferrari from appealing if they think their guy(s) were delayed and I certainly don’t think that they can decide to let it lie if they have reasons to appeal just because Fernando is not a title contender. This is a competition, bro.

About investigations: FIA investigations are very random. Stewards can, and they should, investigate it, but as many others times, depending who, or when in the season, nothing is gonna happen.

About the incident: I think there is nothing to investigate. Although if Alonso ruined Felipe’s hot lap in Monza being 100 metres in front of them, i guess with the same criteria, today Massa could be 1 sec faster ;)